Two Kings

Two Kings. Both are royal. Both are majestic. Both are worthy to be given every good thing and served with excellence. One of the kings is “King Joseph Smith” and the other is “Joe Smith”. It is obvious who King Joseph is when he enters a room. His clothes, jewelry and posture are obvious signs that this man is important. And because he is perceived to important, people “do more” for him. They smile more. They anticipate his needs more. They are more responsive when he asks for something. They have more sense of urgency when he’s around. In other words, everyone treats him like a king because they believe he is a king.

Joe Smith, on the other hand, does not look like royalty, yet he is a king nonetheless. He does not command attention, yet he is a king nonetheless. He is quiet and unassuming, yet he is a king nonetheless. He is a carpenter, yet he is a king nonetheless.

The tragedy is that both gentlemen are royalty, yet will likely have completely different service experiences. The same people will serve them, yet those same people will act differently when serving them. To be clear, they should be treated differently. Each may have different needs and expectations; thus, each of them will require a unique service experience. That is called personalized service. However, personalized service is not what I am referring to. I am alluding to the perception of worthiness that is assigned to people.

True hospitality. True service excellence demands that each person we are privileged to serve is worthy of the best service we have to offer. The assumption is that everyone we serve is a VIP. Specifically, we are not trying to treat VIPs like everyone else. Instead we are treating everyone like they are VIPs. This assertion is a paradigm shift that may make some people uncomfortable, because it assumes that everyone is worthy of being served with excellence.

King Joseph Smith and Joe Smith are both important. Until we see both of them as VIPs, then service excellence is no more than a nice thought…an aspirational idea with no basis in reality.

Make a commitment to lavish excellence on both King Joseph and Joe. Smile. Anticipate. Escort. Do all of those things (and more) to both of them. Assume that everyone (no matter, who they are or what they look like) will consistently get the best of you. Every time.

Two kings. One you. Both royal. Same excellence.